“Inhumans” star Serinda Swan defended the wig she wears as Medusa on the Marvel-ABC drama, calling out her character’s much-mocked hair as a technical achievement.
“It’s never been done before,” said Swan, whose character possesses the ability to manipulate her long red hair. “So there’s going to be issues and there’s going to be trials and tribulations. The CGI … there was software that had to be built for it.”
When the characters were first revealed in a promotional photo back in May, the response was largely negative, with some singling out Swan’s hair as the character Medusa as the biggest issue. When the first footage from the show was revealed last month at Comic-Con, the response was similarly negative.
“If we only did things that were perfect, we would never start. And so it’s a really phenomenal start,” she said at the Television Critics Association summer tour Saturday.
Swan also detailed some of the difficulties of acting with the long wig, particularly while the show was shooting in the humid climate of Hawaii.
“There were definitely days shooting in Hawaii, with a four-pound red wig down to my shins, that felt like a very warm cat snuggling my head — one that I was probably allergic to,” she said. “One gust of wind went from real cute to an emergency. You hug somebody, and sometimes you’d get stuck.”
ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey also defended the wig and the special effects work on the show earlier in the day, promising that the footage fans have seen so far remains a “work in progress.”
“A lot of the first stuff was a reaction to Medusa’s wig,” Dungey said. “Fans, as you know, feel very passionately and very strongly about that. We released some new footage at Comic-Con that I think has reversed some of that conversation.”
“This is still a work in progress,” she continued. “We’re coming down to the wire on some of the special effects.”